Shanghai appears to have rediscovered its stride.
After a period in which international travel resembled a hesitant dance rather than a confident march, China’s commercial capital welcomed 9.36 million inbound visitors in 2025, a result that suggests travellers are once again comfortable committing to long-haul journeys and perhaps rediscovering cities they once knew well.
According to the Shanghai Municipal Administration of Culture and Tourism, arrivals rose 39.58% year-on-year, with momentum building steadily rather than arriving in one exuberant rush. For an industry that prefers consistency over spikes, that is quietly encouraging.
December offered a neat illustration. The city recorded just over one million inbound visits for the month, up 45.56% on the previous year. More telling still was the strength in overnight travel, the kind that fills hotel corridors and restaurant tables rather than airport lounges.
Nearly 8.8 million travellers stayed overnight across the year, a healthy lift that points less to curiosity and more to genuine intent.
Familiar Markets, Renewed Energy
The rebound has not relied on a single source market. Instead, Shanghai has benefited from a broad spread of visitors, the sort of balance tourism boards tend to admire because it cushions against sudden shifts.
South Korea led the charge, with arrivals more than doubling to 909,100. Russia followed with solid gains, while Thailand contributed more than half a million travellers, up more than 70%.
Indonesia and Italy also moved sharply upward.
Meanwhile, dependable neighbours such as Singapore and Malaysia, along with Australia, continued to show steady growth, each exceeding 30%.
There is something reassuring in seeing familiar markets reappear without fanfare. Recovery, after all, often looks less like a headline and more like a gradual resumption of habits.
The Agency Channel Finds Its Feet Again
Travel agencies, occasionally declared obsolete with great confidence over the years, appear to be enjoying a modest revival.
Organised inbound visits climbed 97.39%, while agencies handled nearly 275,000 travellers overall. The majority stayed overnight, a detail that suggests travellers are once again valuing structure, local knowledge and the comfort of a well-planned itinerary.
One might say reports of the middleman’s demise were somewhat premature.
Hotels Benefit Especially Those With Character
Shanghai’s accommodation sector has responded in kind.
International guests now account for roughly two-thirds of visitors at the Yangtze Boutique Shanghai, with Europeans particularly well represented.
Over at the Broadway Mansions Hotel, long admired for its vantage across the Bund, overseas travellers make up about one in five guests, led by South Koreans.
Properties with a sense of history continue to hold their appeal. Both Moller Villa and InterContinental Shanghai Ruijin reported foreign guest shares exceeding 20%, reinforcing the notion that while travellers appreciate efficiency, they rarely object to a little atmosphere.
Across the broader market, occupancy settled around the mid-60% range, with star-rated hotels finishing the year at 65.86%, modestly ahead of 2024.
Luxury properties edged higher still, averaging just over 71%, while room rates crept upward, a development hoteliers tend to welcome with restrained smiles.
A City That Rarely Stands Still
Visa facilitation has certainly helped smooth the path back, yet Shanghai’s enduring magnetism is hardly new.
Few cities blend commerce, culture and spectacle with quite the same ease. It remains a place where tomorrow arrives slightly ahead of schedule, yet the past is never entirely erased.
Looking forward, the expectation is less about dramatic surges and more about sustained growth as global travel continues its steady normalisation.
In other words, Shanghai is behaving much as seasoned travellers remember: open, energetic and comfortably international.
Not a comeback, perhaps.
More of a continuation.
And in this business, continuation is often the healthiest sign of all.
by Charmaine Lu – (c) 2026.
Read time: 4 minutes.
About the Writer.
Charmaine has always carried a quiet kind of courage. She grew up in Shanghai, a city that never slows, yet found her own balance there, studying accounting for discipline and the arts for beauty. She needed both, and she knew it.
When she arrived in Sydney in the 1980s, she brought little more than a degree, a suitcase and the resolve to begin again. The harbour breeze felt like permission. She met Stephen, and together they built a life that bridged two cultures, a family, a home, and plenty of laughter.
Work was never just work. Long before search engines ruled the day, Charmaine was helping businesses be found by telling stories people wanted to read. That remains her quiet gift.
Her life isn’t a résumé. It’s grace under change structure and creativity, held together by a generous heart.
